A Small Affair
by Lavender Kiss
Summary: Hutt River is forced to accompany the young ones to one of France's parties. Later he realizes why it had been a bad idea. Or good. He hasn't entirely decided yet which one.


The chatter and music created a cheerful and open mood and Hutt River relaxed despite the fact that he hadn't initially wanted to come. In fact, they (by which he meant Sealand, Wy, Ladonia, Seborga, Molossia, and Kugelmugel) hadn't been invited per se. Australia might have inadvertently invited him to tag along but he'd refused. He regretted mentioning it at all to his younger colleagues because it had planted all sorts of ideas into young Sealand's brain.

Mainly, it had inspired another plan to get them recognized.

From the beginning, he'd told the younger nations he wanted nothing to do with it but with much talking and whining, he'd agreed only with the condition that if anything went wrong, he was not to blame. And so they had hitched a ride with New Zealand, who had been more than happy to take them, and had scattered across the room as soon as they entered. He hadn't seen hair or hide of them since. He might have seen Seborga around Monaco but he couldn't be too sure. All the Italian brothers looked the same to him especially when they were around beautiful women.

As for himself, he'd mostly selected a nice calm table by the corner near the window and had decided to people watch. It was something he took pleasure in even though Wy informed him constantly that it was creepy.

Children.

The view wasn't too bad and he even entertained forming some alliances. It seemed a more reasonable goal compared to Sealand's and Ladonia's, which mainly dealt with hiding somewhere until the nations were all sufficiently drunk enough to perhaps be duped into recognizing them.

Again. Children.

He was somewhat fascinated by the décor but felt it would have benefited with less roses. He had nothing against the flower; he only found it disagreeable that it had made its way even in his wine. He dipped his finger in his glass and dragged the petal out until it balanced on his finger tip. Carefully, he placed it on a napkin and continued at his leisure. His eyes swept over the crowd of socializing nations, settling briefly on Australia who was laughing at something loudly and slapping Canada on the back. He flinched for the poor nation knowing perfectly well how painful being in the receiving end of one of those pats was.

Further along he spotted India conversing with Hong Kong, China hanging in the back with a very annoyed look on his face batting away at the large Russian nation that constantly accosted him. His eyes lingered for a moment with worry as he spotted Belarus watching them from only a couple of feet away. Best to not linger too long on them.

America, as expected, was by the food table, offering food to a strange pale creature which Hutt River had to blink twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Whatever the thing was, it appeared to have the ability to speak because he said something which caused America to chuckle.

Of great interest to him though, was the small trio towards the other end of the banquet table. England, France, and Zea seemed to be having a very heated conversation. Actually, from his position, it looked like England and France were doing all the talking while Zea looked between them, smiling nervously but ready to step in if a fight broke out. Some other nations lingered around the trio, as if on guard, more specifically Germany and Japan (and North Italy by default).

"Um, excuse me."

A soft but cheerful voice broke him out of his musings and his eyes landed on a petite Asian nation. He quickly tried to recall her name and smiled handsomely as he said, "Miss Taiwan I presume?"

Her eyes widened and a pretty flush coated her cheeks. She seemed to be strangling her hands as she tittered to one side and said, "Oh my."

Alarmed, Hutt River immediately assumed she wasn't well and was about to faint. He jumped out of his seat to grasp her firmly by the shoulders. "Are you alright?" He gently guided her to his seat and sat her down. "Do you need some water?"

She shook her head but continued staring at his face. He wondered briefly what she was thinking. If Hutt River didn't know any better, he would say she was infatuated with him. This thought pleased him after all it wouldn't be the first time but quickly dismissed it when he saw her shiver.

He frowned. Perhaps she really was ill.

"Do you want me to call someone? Perhaps you should go home."

He heard her mumble something under her breath and blinked. "I'm sorry. What was that?"

"Nothing!" she said and he watched with amazement as she jumped to her feet, completely recovered from her short fainting spell. She smiled widely, sweetly, but her eyes held something else that conflicted with her innocent looks.

Something that he felt wouldn't bode very well for him. It was almost the manic eyes of a stalker.

"I'm sorry. You know my name but I don't know yours."

Before he could stop himself, he replied politely. "Of course. How rude of me. I am the Principality of Hutt River. I'm aware not everyone knows of me and so I don't blame you for not recognizing me."

Her eyes lighted up even more. "Really! I think I've heard Hong Kong mention you before!"

He smiled. "Ah yes. I would think so. He got into quite a bit of trouble with Australia for partially recognizing me." He hoped the slight annoyance hadn't leaked into his voice. He didn't want to give the impression that he was bitter about the whole affair.

But Taiwan seemed to have become lost in thought. He returned back to his wine and raised a thick eyebrow as she pulled out a cell-phone and quickly texted someone. There was a second of silence before her phone immediately vibrated and she quickly read the message. He wondered who she was communicating with.

Whatever the issue was, it seemed to be urgent because she turned to him with an apologetic smile. "Excuse me. I have to – uh – speak to someone about something _very_ important." She bowed, her long hair falling like silk across her face.

He accepted her apology graciously and stood to bow to her as well. With one hand behind his back, he took hers and chastely pecked it before letting it go. She was blushing again but she looked more excited rather than embarrassed.

"I hope to see you more often Miss Taiwan."

"As do I."

He watched her walk away (actually more like runaway with the single-mindedness of a predator chasing pray). He didn't think much of it and was actually quite happy because he looked like he had made a friend. He went back to drinking his wine and even indulged himself on some bonbons.

It wasn't more than twenty minutes later that another nation approached him. He recognized her immediately, mostly because she was a rather difficult nation to forget.

"Miss Hungary."

She beamed. "Correct. So _you're_ Hutt River."

She studied him intently. So intently that he began feeling like one of those test subjects that volunteer to be dolls for large groups of scientists. He did not enjoy the feeling. Not one bit because it left him feeling…disturbed. Yes, that was the word. He wasn't sure why though. Despite how violent he'd heard her to be, she looked pleasant enough and more importantly, she didn't look like she wanted to harm him. Still. He cleared his throat, distracting Hungary into paying attention to him.

"I would appreciate it if you stopped staring, Miss Hungary. It's impolite."

Instead of being offended, she grinned and her eyes twinkled with a terrifyingly familiar gleam. It almost felt like déjà vu.

"I'm just curious. How come I haven't ever seen you before? Most of the young micronations make themselves known like nobodies business."

Relaxing at the simple question, he said, "I mostly prefer to stay in my territory. I have everything I need so I don't feel the need to go anywhere else."

She hummed her understanding and tapped her foot on the floor. It was then that he noticed that beneath her beautiful gown she was wearing rather thick boots. He smiled at the sight, mostly because they didn't appear to be lady boots at all. They appeared to be male working boots the ones that construction workers use.

In the split second that he was distracted, he saw a brief flash of light.

He jerked his head up and watched Hungary as she hurriedly stepped away from him and said, "Well, it was nice talking to you. Bye!" She ran off with even more speed than Taiwan (if that was even possible).

He blinked at her fast retreat.

Feeling a headache coming on, he rubbed at his forehead and looked at his watch. It was still early but he had no desire to stay any longer if every encounter was going to be like that.

Fortunately for him, Canada seemed to have decided he wanted to go home too and Hutt River had no trouble asking him for a lift to the air port.

"I didn't know France invited you," he said once they made their way outside.

"He didn't."

"Then how did you…" he trailed off. "Oh." There was silence and then hesitantly he asked, "You don't think the younger ones will cause too much trouble, right?"

Hutt pursed his lips. "Well, their leader is Sealand with Ladonia running a close second. I would think the answer would be obvious."

Canada's shoulder's sagged and he bit his lip. "Maybe I should text France a warning."

"You could but I doubt it would help."

It was true. Despite everything, Hutt had to admire the young ones' tenacity. They were virtually an unstoppable force when they wanted to be. In fact he'd already heard that Sealand was trying to recruit even more micronations in order to build a small army. Miss Lovely, Talossa, and (regrettably) Atlantium were on the top of the list.

Canada studied him for a moment and then asked, "Why are you with them?"

Hutt made a face. "Are you implying that I'm like them in anything more than being clustered together as micronations? Because I assure you, my ideas of gaining nationhood do not in anyway intermingle with theirs."

"Then why do you hang around them?"

At that, Hutt smiled and flicked his hair. "Because if you have ever been to one of our meetings you'll realize that the only voice of reason comes from Wy but despite her good intentions she does have a short fuse and thus it becomes hard for her to not engage in the same level of squabbles. I on the other hand can keep a level head and usually stop things from escalating into violence. Seborga can be helpful at times except that most of the time he is so absentminded I don't even know when he's paying attention. I won't even get into the antics of Molossia and Kugelmugel. They are both rather strange, Kugel perhaps more than Molossia."

"Wow!" Canada said with a soft chuckle. "Sounds like a party."

"Most of the time it is."

They continued making small talk all the way to the air port where they separated to board different planes. Hutt slipped into a light doze and it was early morning when his plane landed in Australia. Tired but feeling better about the whole experience, he quickly greeted his king and made his way to bed where he ritualistically peeled off his clothes, folded them, and slept on the sheets with nothing on except his own skin.

oOo

"Hutt! Hutt! You won't believe the shit that went down last night! Hutt! Mate! Are you home?"

Hutt stared in disgust at his door, a cup of tea clasped between his hands, and wondered if he could just ignore Australia and hope he went away. Too bad the method hadn't worked before and he doubted it would work for him now so he just sighed and walked the couple of steps to his door and let the annoying Aussie in.

He was not prepared for the flooding of Australia, New Zealand, and Wy. The latter of who was pouting: arms crossed, cheeks puffed, looking both angry and jealous. Any other time he would have teased her, knowing how much she hated being treated like a child but he was busy trying to fend off Australia who was practically assaulting him with something. His mouth was running a mile a minute and it took a moment for Hutt to understand what he was saying. What he could understand though only made him more confused.

Zea took pity on him and quickly calmed Australia.

Wy was the one to finally show him what all the fuss was about.

It was a poster. A large poster with his face titled slightly to the side, a small smile on his face, half lidded eyes, and a golden glow around his face. He almost had a heart attack as he released what this was. This was when he'd been talking to Hungary. The flash suddenly made since, and her hasty retreat.

"What…?" he started but was cut off by Wy who stomped her foot.

"It's not fair! How did you catch the attention of three whole countries? More importantly why weren't you there to stop Sealand and Ladonia from making the rest of us look bad?" She glared at him. "Do you realize how embarrassing it was for me, getting scolded by an entire room of drunken nations?"

"Hey now," Australia said defensively, "we weren't that far gone if we could still get together to scold you. Besides, you weren't even supposed to be there!" He turned to look at Hutt and slapped him on the back. Hard. "We _definitely_ weren't drunk enough to miss the couple dozen posters of your face suddenly magically appearing around the room. It was _hilarious_. Most nations didn't have a clue as to who you were and," he paused here to take a deep breath. He leaned in close as if about to tell him an important secret, "they started assuming that you were somehow related to Mum and France! It was the most bizarre thing ever!"

Zea nodded. "The reaction this small rumor caused was immense."

"The best part was France's face. He was absolutely scandalized at being associated with Mum and practically kicked us out his mansion."

"Most of us were drunk enough to have no clue where we were," Zea inputted.

"And others, like Mum and Prussia, decided they weren't drunk enough yet and went off to find some more booze!"

"I was sober enough to guide Aussie back, Wy helping me out when he became a bit too loud."

"He's always loud," Wy muttered.

"Anyway," Australia said. "Mind explaining to us what the poster's about?"

Hutt answered truthfully. "I have no clue. I assume it was Hungary who took the picture but why, I don't know. I'm afraid I'm in the dark on this one."

"Well, it wasn't just Hungary," Zea said. "There was Taiwan and Japan too. They were promoting the poster. I've never seen Japan look so excited about something before and Taiwan was practically glowing. She kept praising you and even mentioned something about you and Hong Kong."

"Now that you mention it," Australia said, taking a step back as he tapped his finger on his chin. His face was scrunched up in concentration. "Hungary also mentioned something about shipping you with me. I thought she was talking about sending you on a ship cruise with me."

"Japan mentioned Mum too," Zea added.

Wy looked red while Hutt River paled. They traded knowing looks and quickly decided they would not mention anything. Let them believe what they wanted. This is where knowing Atlantium became a good and bad thing. Speaking of him, Hutt hoped he hadn't heard anything yet. He didn't want another annoying brother to fend off.

Australia and Zea were back to talking about the poster and last night's events.

"Well, I can't exactly stop people from knowing Hutt now. His face is probably already all over the internet. Japan is good at that kind of stuff, isn't he?"

Zea nodded.

"And while France is off despairing, I'm sure Mum is having a good laugh over it all. He'll probably come by to congratulate you."

Talk died after that and pretty soon, Australia and Zea decided they needed to rest. It had been a wild night. Wy would have stayed behind but she was grounded and thus had to go back with Australia. She wasn't happy about it but there was nothing she could do.

Once his home became silent again, he sat down in a chair and tried to process everything.

Had he just become famous over night or was he dreaming?

There was only one way to find out and so he reached for his laptop. He typed his name and gasped when he saw the very same poster. Underneath it though were varying degrees of similar text.

"France has some new competition in the glamour department!"

"The best qualities of England and France all in one package!"

"A dream come true."

"A fairy tale prince."

In fact, his fan given named seemed to be Prince Charming. He shuddered. He quickly scrolled down comments. There was even a fan website dedicated to worshiping him, managed by someone in Taiwan. For whatever reason he suspected he knew exactly who that Taiwanese person was. There were other links which, curiously enough, led him to other websites of other nations. How long had these three been stalking other nations?

A new message popped up on his e-mail account. The subject just read 'You!' and he hesitantly clicked on it.

_Monsieur Hutt River_

_Your dear friend Seborga was so kind as to gift me with you email address. I shall be brief. Concerning the events that happened last night, I regret to inform you that this is war. Prepare yourself._

_Je vous adresse mon très amical souvenir_

_République française_

_P.S. Je vous déteste_

He knew enough French to figure out what the last part meant and quietly shut his computer. He needed to lie down. Or better yet, perhaps he should go down to his cellar and open up one of his special bottles of wine. It would make him feel better at least and perhaps he could forget that, while he seemed to have made friends with Hungary, Taiwan, and apparently Japan (as well as getting on England's good side), he'd made an enemy of France.

Although considering who he was related to, it shouldn't be much of a surprise.

He should have never gone to that party. He had a feeling he wouldn't be left alone anymore. On the other hand, this opened up many new opportunities and behind the annoyance he couldn't help but feel smug. Micronations like Sealand could gather attention from the people, but how many micronations could boast of catching the eye of actual Nations?

He could play along, after all, his ultimate goal had always been to get noticed and no matter how unintentional it had been that is what he had accomplished at the party. Definitely in a much better way than the younger ones. He just hoped the benefits outweighed the problems his new popularity was going to bring.

Making a mental list, he realized he would have to deal with France and possibly the micronations, depending on whether they had reacted as Wy had reacted. He would need to speak to his king as well. This new information was bound to make him happy and possibly use it to his advantage.

There were many things to do and not enough hours in the day. He sighed. First he would finish his lunch, perhaps go for a walk. Then he would handle everything else.

**A/N: Okay. Lame ending. Don't ask me how this came to be. I wouldn't be able to tell you. Also, since I really don't know much about Hutt River, his personality is purely my own interpretation of him. I think he would be very thoughtful and I also think him more of a gentleman rather than a pervert. In fact I don't see him as a pervert at all. I also don't think he would be full of himself like Prussia, but he would definitely be confident of his good looks and ability to woo women. I dunno that's just what I think. I hope you enjoyed this rather strange and out of the blue fic. Leave me a review to tell me what you think and also if there are any spelling or grammar errors. Thanks!**

_Notes:_

_Who the heck are Atlantium, Talossa, and Lovely? Just three random micronations that I like. Atlantium cause it almost sounds like Atlantis (has anyone noticed how many micronations are from Australia?). Talossa because it has an interesting history. It was apparently started by some kid in Milwaukee in 1979 but what I find the most interesting is the fact that it's been split due to disputes so now it's a principality and a republic. I think Talossa would be an interesting schizophrenic. As for Lovely, obviously it would be a girl and she'd consider herself Scottish even though she lives in England. She was created for a TV show called "How to Start your own Country" by Danny Wallace._

_The Hong Kong and Hutt River thing came about when I read that Hong Kong got in trouble with Australia for having "recognised Hutt River as a legitimate state in regards of incorporation for a company." (That quote comes directly from Wiki and besides that, I don't know anything else)._

_Translation:_

_Je vous adresse mon très amical souvenir – kindest regards (roughly)_

_je vous déteste – I hate you_


End file.
